Ministry is hard to balance. With abandon, we go "all in" for Jesus. We work and give and sweat and sacrifice until we find ourselves at the end of a rope that is frayed and worn. Burnout is tough in any career or vocation, but when we "work" for God, we subconsciously assume we will be shielded from the effects of too much outflow for too little infill.
Some of the most wounded (bitter?) people I have ever known are those who have burned out in ministry and never recovered. Some of the most grace-filled, nurturing people I have know are those who have gone through end-of-the-rope-burnout and been healed.
I'd love to hear your story of how church work and ministry has impacted you. I would especially love to hear from those who have made it through burnout to "the other side" and are working in ministry with joy, success and balance. How did you do it? What made the difference? Help us.
Additionally, I'd like you to help someone I have become acquainted with named Anne Jackson. She is working on a book about burnout in churches. She is calling the book "Mad Church Disease" because of parallels she sees between cows riddled with Mad Cow Disease and the effects of burnout on those who work in our contemporary church culture.
If you are on church staff, are family member someone on church staff, or are a volunteer in a church, please take some time and help Anne compile information that will help her write this important book. The anonymous survey is at MadChurchDisease.com.
You can find more about this project by going to the website.
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2 comments:
Hey Dwight,
Interesting post! I'd love to get together for coffee--please drop me an email.
Brad
Issaquah Christian Church
It's not just pastors, staff and volunteers that get burned out on church! You don’t need Barna’s statistics to know something is wrong. Frankly, if you look at how church is “done” I’m surprised anyone still attends or serves. Church is a lecture not a community. Worse it is one individual’s take on the bible. Next, church is segregated by age and sex. It is also segregated between clergy and laity. Churches are even independent of each other. Unity is a myth – nobody cares about the Church – all they care about is their little church. Worship has been reduced to minimalist commercial semi-Christian themed love songs. Missions is something big organizations do not my brother or sister sitting in the pew next to me. If they do, we’ll almost never hear about it. Leaders almost never meet biblical qualifications for leadership. When the clergy fails they simply move on, perhaps with some therapy, to another “calling” where they have little hope of a better outcome. A brave face is put on and failure hidden. There is no vision based on the bible. There is no work for much of the laity except to write checks and attend. The men among the laity may be wonderful fathers, successful in their careers, have a good relationship with their wife, but still have nothing to contribute in church. Most learn after a while it’s a waste of time to attempt to be part of the church so they stay home and begin focusing on making money. If I ran my high tech company like many pastors ran churches I’d be bankrupt and out of business. If I ran my family, like most pastors run their church I’d be divorced, and have children I’d pay to change their name. If I ministered like most pastors I know, I’d be thinking about how to deal with burnout just like you! But, I keep it simple – just the bible! Many are so pragmatic about serving God, and so arrogant! Simple is better! Biblical is better! See the bible wants Christians to come together in unity. He wants every member contributing. He wants vertical integration between younger and older, more experienced and lesser experienced. He wants us focused on the needs of others rather than ourselves, to engage in apologetics and evangelism. He wants us to prefer others rather than ourselves. That means we’d shut up and sit down and listen to what someone else has been taught of God instead of acting like we wrote the bible or were the only ones who could interpret it. Jesus would probably prefer we spent more time doing than talking – talking in church, at the youth camp, at the women’s retreat, at seminars, conferences, home bible study fellowships, and on and on and on and on – ever learning never able to do! Paul, who was probably writing for Jesus, advised we work out our faith in our life, through our careers, with our wife, get our children on board, develop a reputation for charity in the community, learn apologetics and evangelism by actually engaging in them, develop and maintain proper relationships with our brothers and sisters in Christ before being a so-called leader and getting burned out! He insisted we do this BEFORE leading in the Church! Maybe Paul was onto something? It sure seems to work! At least for me, but, then maybe I’m just blessed – blessed to be dumb enough to actually believe and follow the Word! But what do I know; I don’t have a bible degree. All I have is a lot of energy, a great relationship with my wife, four children totally sold out for the kingdom, two businesses, thirteen employees, and a great ministry with my family sharing the gospel and teaching music. I can’t imagine being burned out! Of course there are some failures in my life. There is very little money in the bank, our house is the worst in the neighborhood, my software development business could be 150 million dollar per year business if I focused more on it instead of limping along at less than one million, nobody ever asks me to speak in church or write books on religious topics, in fact if I open my mouth and ask a few questions it’s usually suggested we look for a more “appropriate church home”, my health is a serious issue, I don’t sleep much, I don’t know what a 401K plan is, most of my children’s friends are in jail on felony charges, we don’t have a “church home” or a burned out pastor to tell us what to do, I told my wife our house and neighborhood is too nice and that we’ll be moving soon, preferably to a Gypsy ghetto overseas, my wife turned thirty-nine last month, no older brother or sister from any church has ever tried to mentor or encourage my children in their walk with the Lord, and my daughter’s goldfish died tonight. But burned out? Nope! In fact I’m pumped! I wake up each day focused on getting the gospel out through my family and business – everything is ministry!
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